The Rev. David C. Bane, Jr., rector of Christ Church, Dayton, Ohio, was elected Bishop Coadjutor of Southern Virginia April 19 at a special session of diocesan council. Fr. Bane, 54, was elected on the seventh ballot from a field of six nominees.

In addition to the representatives from 124 congregations within the diocese, votes were cast by two ecumenical representatives - the Rev. Charles Faul, co-pastor of Church of the Holy Apostles, an Episcopal-Roman Catholic congregation in Norfolk, and the Rev. James McDonald, general minister of the Virginia Council of Churches.

The bishop-elect will become the ninth Bishop of Southern Virginia upon the retirement of the current diocesan, the Rt. Rev. Frank H. Vest, Jr.

"We have elected a godly and talented Christian leader in David Bane," Bishop Vest said. His leadership will obviously have a major impact on God's church in Southern Virginia during the opening decade of the 21st century."

Because the election occurred within three months of the opening of General Convention, it will have to be ratified by that convention when it meets in Philadelphia July 16-25.

Fr. Bane is a native of Morgantown, W.Va., and a graduate of Bethany College, West Virginia University and Virginia Theological Seminary. He was ordained to the diaconate and the priesthood in 1985, and began his ordained ministry at St. John's Church, Wheeling, W. Va., where served as rector from 1985 to 1987. He was rector of St. James', Keene, N.H., 1987-91, before moving to Dayton. He and his wife, Elizabeth, are the parents of four children

Others who were nominated were: the Rev. Glenn E. Busch, rector of St. Mary's, High Point, N.C.; the Rev. Robert W. Cowperthwaite, rector of St. Paul's, Franklin, Tenn.; the Very Rev. Philip M. Duncan II, dean of St. Matthew's Cathedral, Dallas; the Rev. David Lassalle, chaplain at Old Dominion University; the Rev. Stanley Sawyer, rector of All Saints', Virginia Beach, and the Rev. Charles G. vonRosenberg, rector of St. James', Wilmington, N.C.